Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus review

I like a good Chromebook as much as anyone, and Chromebook Plus models have to a great extent it was a solid upgrade for what are still ultra-cheap laptops. There are a few places you can pick up a “Plus” laptop for basic browsing, streaming, and potentially more intensive cloud-based tasks for around $350, like the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 11. With its enterprise-grade chassis, this device costs as much as Asus ExpertBook CX54 Chromebook Plus. Samsung’s device is also the first Chromebook to use the new hotkey (right where you find the Caps Lock button). Fast access to Gemini AI is certainly not worth the extra cost, so what is?

What the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus offers is a great feel, from the chassis to the I/O port selection to the spacious keyboard. It is so thin; a Google PR representative was happy to show how the new Galaxy Chromebook Plus was as thick as two ranked Pokémon cards. Of course, this is a very specific indicator, but with a thickness of 11.8 mm, there is no bag or crack in the wall that it cannot fit into.

It has a solid battery life that lasts just over 10 hours after intermittent use. The Samsung-branded Chromebook also features a quality nearly 16-inch AMOLED display that feels luxuriously wide. That, plus a full numpad keyboard and an HDMI port with a solid selection of I/O, makes it a great all-rounder. It also comes with 256GB of storage for your content outside of the cloud, more than you typically get elsewhere. The performance of the Intel Core 3 chip is where it should be with such a common Chromebook processor. At the same time, it has a minimum of 8GB of RAM to qualify for Chromebook Plus status.

However, with no touchscreen or other notable features aside from the thin chassis, there’s not much in this Chromebook that would excite me to recommend it for $700. You can’t get much better if you want a solid Chromebook and don’t care about the price.

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus Review: Build quality and usability

The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus is housed in a body that is 0.47 inches tall and weighs 2.58 pounds. Yes, it’s light, light as hell, but better than that, it still feels solid. The chassis has some dent towards the center (not as bad as Acer Swift 16 AI), especially around the palm rest. Otherwise, the laptop feels premium and you have the added benefit of a nice navy blue lid color. The only problem is that the device tends to get shiny with your oily fingers and palms, which requires regular wiping. It also has the added benefit of multiple I/O ports, including two USB-C, USB Type A, HDMI and a micro-SD card slot.

Check out the Galaxy Chromebook Plus at Samsung

The keyboard and trackpad feel just about right. The thin keys aren’t too hard, although they still have a clicky feel without being squishy. The click-type trackpad has a smooth texture, but not as fine as a glass surface. I’ve only had a few instances of palm rejection issues, but not enough to worry about long-term use. Overall, it’s very standard, especially since you don’t get a touchscreen on this model.

After that, it all comes down to the ChromeOS software. Easily my favorite part of the recent updates is the welcome summary. It loads every time you restart your Chromebook, allowing you to see what you’ve been working on most recently, along with little widgets for your calendar, time, and documents. As for the quick insert key, I’ve only used it to text emoticons or quickly access GIFs to send to colleagues in Slack. This is very useful for memelords, but not much else.

After using it for a week, I loved the new features of the Focus. You can set it to wait for your focus tasks, reducing pop-ups and other distractions. You can activate it with YouTube Music, but instead there’s a small selection of “Focus Sounds” to listen to. There are songs to mimic a thunderstorm, with rain pelting an invisible roof, or you could choose the ‘classic’ song to serenade yourself with soft strings and brass as you work. I just wish you had more control over each playlist and there were more to choose from. Google also integrates Google Tasks directly into the taskbar above the calendar feature. It’s simple but effective, especially if you’re the type who needs a reminder every few hours of what you were supposed to be doing.

The sound quality is impressive, especially when using headphones. The display is excellent, but the thin design doesn’t support its role as a complete all-in-one entertainment device.

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus review: Display and sound

One of the Galaxy Chromebook’s biggest selling points is its 15.6-inch AMOLED display. It’s a nice size and the 1080p resolution is good enough for streaming YouTube or Netflix. The screen was also quite bright for my use, so I initially relied on it to slide into the living room of my apartment, where it gets the most sun.

Yes, it looks great, but its panel only has a 60Hz refresh rate. That’s fine for streaming video content, but what if I want to load up Game Pass or Geforce Now to stream a game on that bright, beautiful screen? At this price, I’d like a 120Hz panel like this Acer Chromebook 516 GE.

Unfortunately, the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus doesn’t sound as good as it looks. It can get loud, but it’s still very thin, which is certainly not the quality you want watching your favorite movies while snuggled up in bed with your significant other.

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus review: performance and battery life

The laptop uses an Intel Core 3 100U Raptor Lake processor released in January, before all the hype around Qualcomm Snapdragon, AMD Strix Point and Intel Lunar Lake for thin PCs. It’s an entry-level chip, but it’s good at that level. However, it doesn’t have the battery life of these latest $1,000+ laptops.

The fan can’t be called loud, but I was surprised to hear it whirring since the device was running three separate Chrome windows and an external display. The laptop can also get relatively warm under stress, but you’ll only feel it if you’re holding it underneath. I have never noticed any instances where heat affected performance.

The Galaxy Chromebook Plus also has 8GB of RAM, more than you typically get with a Chromebook Plus model. Because of this, the Chromebook was fast for most tasks, but running it with all those windows and too many tabs open caused me to experience some cursor lag and the occasional hang.

Battery life was one of the defining advantages of Chromebooks, but other small Windows PCs have since eclipsed them. Samsung promises 13 hours of battery life, although this is based on the Chromebook power test. I found I could get between six and seven hours before needing a recharge. Not bad and I used it with too many tabs open as I usually do. It just won’t be a multi-day laptop.

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus review: AI add-ons

The new Chromebook Plus models will supposedly have a hotkey landing on the Caps Lock space where the old “G” key used to be (don’t worry, the Start button has a new spot next to the left Alt key). The Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus is the first of its kind to receive this addition. This has several advantages. It allows you to access recently opened files and see a potential URL link that you can add to some text. Its main reason, however, is to give you instant access to the AI’s typing capabilities.

However, I have serious doubts that anyone should use this for anything more than outlining or brainstorming. I asked Google’s Gemini to write a paragraph explaining the specs of the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus, just to prove a point. Gemini spat out several paragraph options and provided inaccuracies about the display, processor, size, and more. It will confidently lie about things it doesn’t have the right information about, and that’s a problem.

Even the correction function is less useful than it should be. It doesn’t tell you which parts of a highlighted paragraph will change. All this with a subscription to Gemini Advanced, which is Google’s most capable LLM available to desktop Chromebook users.

And, of course, there’s Gemini Advanced. All new Chromebook Plus buyers get 12 months free of Google’s more advanced chatbot plus 2TB of cloud storage. Gemini Advanced comes with several “gems” as coding partners; depending on the user it may prove useful. Based on Google’s suggestion, I asked Gem “Brainstormer” to help me come up with gift ideas for a friend who likes Baldur’s Gate III. To make a long story short, the gift ideas absolutely suck. His best idea was to give a gift card or shirt to a local game store.

Don’t buy this or any new Chromebook for its AI capabilities. However, if you’re using the device’s built-in voice recorders, you’ll find the new AI-generated transcriptions and summaries in the ChromeOS recording app, which isn’t too bad.

Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus review: Verdict

The more I used the Samsung Galaxy Chromebook Plus, the more I liked it. This is a Chromebook that I can see someone replacing their laptop with. It’s got enough ports and a solid display, but without all the little extras like a higher refresh rate and better speakers, I’d inevitably feel like I’m missing out. I’d like a Chromebook without compromise for the price you pay.

Check out the Galaxy Chromebook Plus at Samsung